Gerald Bricca

A family is murdered in Cincinnati
In the quiet Cincinnati suburb of Green Township, Gerald Bricca, his wife Linda, and their young daughter were building a life. Gerald, a 28-year-old White man, worked as a chemical engineer for the Monsanto Company. Linda, 23, was a former flight attendant. Together with their four-year-old daughter, Debbie, they had moved to the area from Seattle about three years earlier and settled into a modest home on Greenway Avenue. They were a young family creating a life full of neighborhood connections and the happy daily routines of raising a child.

The last time anyone saw Gerald Bricca alive was around 10 p.m. on Sunday, September 25, 1966. A neighbor watched him take his trash cans to the curb before stepping back inside his house. The next morning, he was scheduled to catch a flight to West Virginia for a business trip with a co-worker. When he failed to show up for the flight, his colleague tried calling the house, but there was no answer. As Monday turned into Tuesday, the signs that something was terribly wrong began to accumulate outside the Bricca home. Newspapers piled up on the driveway, the trash cans remained by the street, a porch light stayed on day and night, and the family’s two dogs were not let out to play.

On Tuesday, September 27, concerned neighbors decided to check on the family. Finding the front door unlocked, they cautiously opened it. One of the neighbors, a war veteran, immediately recognized the smell of death and warned the others not to enter. They closed the door and called the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. When deputies arrived, they discovered a scene of unimaginable violence that would haunt the community for decades. The entire family had been brutally murdered in their bedrooms.

In the master bedroom, investigators found Gerald and Linda Bricca. They had both been stabbed numerous times in the chest, neck, and face. Gerald had a sock stuffed in his mouth, held in place with a small piece of medical tape. Linda was found lying on top of him. Investigators determined that both had been bound at some point, but the restraints, possibly tape, had been removed from their bodies and were missing from the scene. In her own bedroom, little Debbie was found stabbed four times in the back with such force that the wounds went completely through her small body.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office launched an exhaustive investigation, eventually interviewing more than 400 people connected to the family, however remotely. Yet, no murder weapon was ever found, and no suspect was ever arrested or charged. The motive for the slayings remained a mystery, leaving a quiet west-side suburb shattered and fearful. The brutality of the crime, inflicted upon a seemingly ordinary family with no known enemies, left few solid leads for detectives to follow.

Over the years, the Bricca family murders became one of Cincinnati's most infamous and enduring cold cases. Decades after the crime, investigators revisited the evidence with the hope that new technology could provide answers. In 2012, evidence, including hairs found clutched in Linda Bricca’s hand, was re-examined using modern forensic science. Unfortunately, these efforts did not produce the breakthrough needed to solve the case.

As of September 2019, more than half a century after the murders, the case officially remains unsolved. The triple homicide on Greenway Avenue left a deep wound in the community's memory, a chilling story of a family’s life cut short by an unknown killer who slipped into their home and vanished without a trace. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities continue to ask for the public's help. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office at 513-825-1500.